breaking news on r.t.e. international one man reportedly killed in eastern ukraine troops. antigovernment protesters held city. nato's the second in command reportedly says russia is now considered an enemy. because of its ongoing role in the ukrainian crisis. heads to washington with a strong message from german big business siemens involved among the major. against more sanctions on russia.

it is a busy friday for news here in moscow thanks for joining us on r.t. international on real research because straight to our breaking news for you here on the program ukrainian troops are storming the eastern city of slovyansk which is held by antigovernment protesters the local self-defense forces report one man has been killed and anywhere up to three helicopters have been downed interior ministry says one pilot is dead and several soldiers injured i talked with. she is in the region. we are hearing from a local self-defense commander that at least one helicopter has dropped soldiers near the town of slavyansk and reports just in suggest that one pilot has been killed and another has been taken hostage there is heavy fighting happening in the vicinity of the railway station locals have been telling us that they have been hearing cannons being fired in the outskirts of the town we also understand that at

least one checkpoint has been taken now several checkpoints have come under attack reinforcements by the self-defense units are being brought to checkpoints that man and control all the roads in and out of slavyansk we spoke to one resident inside the besieged town early in the morning a major operation on the city of armored vehicles came to the outskirts of the city where the fighting is going on in the center of the city troops are being dropped in by helicopters that are also right sector members we also understand that at least eight armored vehicles have been seen right up close near the town of slavyansk we are hearing reports of injuries we also understand that the police station has come under attack there is heavy fighting being reported in the vicinity of the police station now as you can well imagine telephone lines are very

very poor we're struggling to speak with people inside the city the town has been expecting this there is an atmosphere of panic and fear indeed the reports have been taken seriously that the ukrainian army is planning to launch such an attack and at the same time we understand that the ukrainian army is using both ground troops and air support. is keeping you up to date with exactly what's happening in slovyansk you can follow her twitter feed for the very latest updates on the reported military. thanks for joining us let's talk more about the situation in ukraine with our international relations expert marks the border now joining us here live on r.t. international good to see you this morning as we know kiev leaders have a said earlier that the all me is an able to quell the unrest in the east so how do

you how do you think i should explain these renewed attacks which are apparently quite violent yes we saw just a few days ago that this acting president. announced that his regime was helpless to assert its control over the people of east ukraine. but we have to understand that he and his regime are under incredible political pressure from who from the ultra nationalists and the forces of the my don who are still camped out in the streets of kiev just a few days ago we saw a massive. mid late night march by torchlight of ultranationalists eerily reminiscent of one nine hundred thirty s. germany through downtown kiev that entered into a riot that were demanding that the regime either take decisive military

action to take control of the country and what they call a national revolutionary state or that it would be overthrown in a kind of coup two point zero if i may we did manage to speak to one of the self-defense come on who's on the ground just for a moment let's pause and have a quick listen to what he had to say. at the moment right sector and military are coming closer to the city we are planning to have long the attack so far at least to have a culture as has been destroyed and one injured pilot is now receiving we ate there are no casualties on the side of still defense quotes and there will be no more because of their stay not sure our motherland. now he's saying it's not just the military but also the ultimately the right sector also attacking you you touched on a moment ago but how big do you think is the radicals involvement in your opinion here but it well it is a fairly large and significant but it is divided among several branches the right sector is an alliance of nationalist groups that have received thorough

paramilitary training for years now and we know that they have several thousand members just recently their leader dimitri you're also announced that he was stablish in the new proposals in eastern city a force of a thousand right sector to help control eastern ukraine but we also know that the putsch government has created what they call a national guard and it is composed almost entirely of other alter nationalist groups and militias that were once part of the my don movement. as far as i understand this national guard is not affiliated with the army or with a no it is not so does that give them some sort of immunity do you think oh all clearance there have been several calls for mobilization most of them failed by this government and last week they announced the creation of a new civil defense force and when they were doing in this they delineated the

duties between the civil defense force and the national guard both a separate from the military which they regard as ideologically. disloyal able to carry out their orders to act against their own people and it was made clear that the national guard's duty. included what they call anti-terrorist operations which is what they call this mass repression that they are operations that they are engaging in in eastern ukraine and the reports that we have is that a great deal of the forces that are currently engaged around slovyansk and chroma tourist are these national guard troops which are true believers they are fanatics they are the ones who are willing to kill and be killed in order to further this national revolutionary state that has been created and if i can just jump in here just for a moment and let's let's try to get some of the very very latest out of this ongoing military operation by the kiev government in east ukraine these are

unconfirmed but i'm hearing here that ukraine will soon block railways in the area that's allegedly according to the interior minister minister also according to the ministry of the interior ukraine saying they control ten checkpoints and this is unconfirmed some alluding to already saying. that kiev could be successful in this operation you're focused. well we have to take everything that's coming out of kiev as we have discovered over the preceding weeks with a real grain of salt because there is a lot of distance from asian and pure propaganda coming out of the ports regime and really very little that has been broadcast from the interior minister or from the intelligence services has later proved to be correct. i suspect that they do not from what we've heard on the ground they do not have control of ten checkpoints at this time they may have control of

a few and they certainly have others under assault. by all accounts what we know of the self defense forces in slovyansk is that they number. a few hundred people that they are completely supplied and that contrary to the western media reports they are not at all supplied or aided by russia itself but. the western media reports these people are insurgents and terrorists i mean does that does that sound accurate that is completely inaccurate and not only is it inaccurate according to what we assess but it is inaccurate according to the assessment of western reporters such as reporting for time magazine on the ground where he made clear that these people were not at all affiliated officially with the russian government that most of them were locals veterans. police that they

were so desperate that they were trading interviews for fuel to run their cars that they were referred old hunting rifles to defend themselves and that they were relying on food supplies out of the gardens of grandmothers of slovyansk in order to feed themselves and personally i think it's a real travesty and they have these people have called on the russian government for help and quite clearly they haven't received it yet but what we're seeing right now this alleged government military operation and it's definitely holding up down there at the moment we have these self-defense forces as well at the end of the day it's their way out of this crisis do you think mark. we had several what is referred to in the west as exit ramps from the situation up till now we've had the january twenty first agreement we've had these documents that were signed just weeks ago that were broken almost hours after signing them that were tacitly agreed

to by the united states the e.u. the putsch government and russia and at this point it doesn't seem there is an easy drawdown from the situation like you think you think you think of the powers behind the powers behind the throne in kiev do you think they really want to see a quick and easy solution to this quickly. i think actually what they are trying to do is provoke a russian response their government is just weeks away from falling apart the fault and a western help in the face of a russian intervention could help keep the regime alive all right michael board international relations expert thanks very much for joining us here on r.t. international. now here are the latest are some of the latest images we have received from the city this photo right here posted on social media allegedly showing a helicopter pilot who was injured during the slovyansk operation or the man helping him to safety are apparently all tony activists and the media spokesperson for

the self-defense units i spoke to you about the current situation in the city and offered a message of defiance where you'd better certainly happening on the outskirts of the city the ring is closing in on the rest of. our men are preparing for a battle we fight a little chase this from our city. will be closely following the situation in eastern ukraine where a military operation to retake the protestor held city of slovyansk now appears to be underway details to come your way as soon as we get. unfortunately the european union and that's very unwise wants to expand it will

still. fall some brussels will still have more and more member they forget that it's not only about themselves. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the ip interviews intriguing story for you. in trying. to find out more visit our big. dog called.

l also news today here in our international thanks for joining us we come to you live from moscow from now on nato will view russia as an enemy and not a partner in the books deputy head has told this to journalists he said more troops could be sent to the region to counter what the alliance sees as russian aggression in ukraine guy nature can has more. a top nato official says the alliance now sees russia as an enemy alexander vershbow that deputy secretary general of nato who also served as the u.s. ambassador to russia two years ago was quoted as saying clearly the russians have declared nato was an adversary so we have to begin to view russia no longer as a partner but as more of an adversary than a partner is true that over the last couple of decades has expressed indignation over nato broken promises over nato expansion to russian borders for years moscow

felt cheated because the u.s. in one nine hundred ninety promised not to expand nato but since then a. twelve european nations to the alliance but despite this moscow it still cooperated with nato on a number of soap global importance like ghana stand up for taking nonproliferation in a pro nato suspended all practical civilian and military cooperation with russia although russia has maintained its diplomatic mission to nato alexander went on to say that nato is considering the deployment of substantial numbers of combat forces these things either permanently or on bases other nato officials talked about sending more fighter jets full member states this will mean more military spending we remember the u.s. president calling europeans to chip in and to spend more on nato and this could also mean more tensions because with the military buildup may come of the buildup of fear. we also spoke to former pentagon official michael maloof he believes these

comments should not be regarded as official stance. it was an unfortunate statement because it basically draws a picture of russia and europe has been adversaries when there's a tremendous trade going on between russia and europe so i think that there's more room among the nato countries probably more mature level headed people particularly in europe who see the need to work with russia rather than to treat it as an adversary or an enemy as such. is coming under pressure from major german companies who want no more sanctions imposed against russia over the ukrainian crisis it will make it hard to push for stricter penalties and that's likely to be the message from when she meets barack obama on friday evening to

a booked in for a four hour dinner at the white house parties but are all of the reports on some of the potential sticking points likely to be on the friday but it's set to be a meeting between two of the world's most powerful leaders but there are more than rumblings that the balance of power in the relationship is very one sided but then doesn't stand up and it gets they had this it's based in dependency is the u.s. denied spine and merkel cell phone ben admitted it no it just continues because a moment says words are of the right to collect information i just see and google merkel going to the us to pick up new instructions. the chancellor has come in for rebuke it home for not pushing to allow edward snowden to give testimony at an investigation into n.s.a. activity in person her critics saying that she's looking to protect the image of the u.s. partners mrs merkel is visit won't just be watched closely in germany many in europe are angry that no leader really stood up to the actions of the u.s.

in the aftermath of snowden's revelations. i think the single most the proof of the cowardice of governments and their under billionaires to actually tackled is in a meaningful way despite what they would say publicly was when when the. european countries closed their airspace and forced the year the year. the president a plane over. to learned in austria on a hunch or suspicion that edward snowden was on board trid is set to play a major role in the talks negotiations are still ongoing over the transatlantic trade and investment partnership or which could see an easing of current restrictions on the surface this could see both the e.u. and u.s. profit motive what cost to consumers genetically modified food hormone treated beef and chicken. eggs in germany ninety six percent of people think that e.u.

standards on environmental protection are better than the u.s. on car safety the figures show ninety one percent in favor of the e.u. and on data protection eighty five percent didn't think the u.s. standards were up to the job more transparency is needed in teach it talks say those standing against this is merkel's party in upcoming elections. the whole negotiations are taking place behind closed doors amongst a small number of people we must be vigilant when this type of deal is done with third world nations are often attempts to undermine the legal system of that land we will not accept this. the ongoing situation in ukraine looks a certainty to be discussed but while both the u.s. and e.u. have bent sanctions they've taken different forms representing europe's closer economic and energy bond to russia while germany and the united states remain the

firmest of friends on the international stage when i'm going to miracle sits down for talks with barack obama it looks likely that there will be some issues they certainly don't see eye to eye on. r.t. . and we asked michael hudson economics professor at the university of missouri he thinks by position other sanctions will change. the germans are very clear that they are not going to pursue sanctions that hurt german industry that would be the crew of appropriate camel's back and there is some discussion in germany about do we want to really remain part of nato if we don't have a voice in it and we really want to sacrifice german industry so that american industry can move in and take over the market that the german into three have this is an american market grabbing opportunity from germany and you can be sure that within merkel's own christian democratic party there is

a big argument over whether germany should make the sacrifice of its industry for american industry just because america says thanks for sharing your friday with us here on r.t. international efforts to tackle drug production in afghanistan have cost the us billions of dollars but still opium production is at a record high cooperation between moscow and washington serves to put pressure on the illegal trade worldwide but the amount of money pumped directly into afghanistan had little effect on the level of the drugs flowing out our europe russia and the us are all on the receiving end of the afghan drug trade which is responsible for eighty percent of the world's entire opium production heroin production is also sought and is now forty times higher than in two thousand and one over one million addicts have been estimated to have died in the past decade but earnings from the trade are in the billions of dollars as well as r.t.c. calf reports addiction is taking its toll on afghan society. but.

there are a lot of still ravaged by drugs with no help in sight this is the face of addiction in afghanistan one of many. beneath the bridge in the center of kabul a foul smelling sewer now school grades as a river and on its banks and on the refuse. men with haunted eyes and hollow stares. every day there are more they huddle in the shadows but there's no need to hide the police don't bother coming here. the supply is cheap there's heroin opium too and the tools to consume them. last year afghanistan recorded its largest opium harvest ever the scene behind me tell the story of just how devastating that's been for the people here the men that have gathered here are part of a growing addiction epidemic according to the united nations more than

a million afghans are addicted to heroin and opium out of a population of some thirty eight million people which makes up ghana stand not just the world's top exporter of the drugs but one of its top consumers to them and that's despite billions of dollars and more than a decade of western efforts to curb narcotics here is going to study i don't know where the money go there's no help they can push for us to use this potentially possible force to put it want to. the city's official treatment clinics are struggling to cope we cover the drugs of. god god is done go with it. it can color not more than ten percent but ninety percent without any sense. feed that in d.c. . as that increasing like that that is easy like i don't it person

like this is good light. which makes these men some of the lucky few they're getting help it may not be a traditional facility but it's a place to call home for up to twenty addicts at a time there's no medication just group therapy but they say the treatment works this woman they call mother a little harder we was haunted by her brother struggle with heroin appalled at the growing number of addicts and the lack of help so she stepped in she opened the treatment center and later this restaurant it pays for the expenses and gives the addicts a place to work but in this traditional society it's cost her more than money. my husband didn't approve of this and left me i haven't been able to see my children since then i've been threatened and even beaten here but missing my children has been hardest for now this is family i love. that the clinic checks in with the addicts some turn to heroin as refugees in iran

or pakistan others were driven to drugs by economic despair when you have no work no opportunity it's like death you cannot be productive so you take drugs to escape . this former policeman began smoking opium after losing his leg to a landmine an addict for twelve years thanks to a clinic cleaned for almost one. i made a decision to change my life around i tried many times before but now i have support. it's a small victory but afghanistan's battle with drugs is likely to rage on now forty kabul. you can see more of lucy's firsthand reports from afghanistan in the media days ahead right here on our teams around. malnutrition. violent. drug addiction. and she cures.

corruption. what are the venues here lucy company reports on afghan realities this is an incredible. let's get some other international headlines in brief time for the arts he won't update. there goes an entire foot sliced into a railroad thing in baltimore where a major storm is continuing its march along america's east coast the sinkhole swallowed a road. post trees and. rob a quick evacuation of several houses right in that neighborhood of the united states has suffered torrential downpours hail thunder storms tornadoes all of a five days death toll at thirty seven. to haiti where over two thousand

protesters in the capital carried banners and coffins to call for the president martelly riot police and un peacekeepers dispersed protesters who had attempted to block a major road is the third large anti-government protest in just one week. in the nigerian capital has killed at least nineteen and injured sixty more witnesses laden with explosives blew up next to a security services checkpoint and no group has admitted to carrying out the attack but the islamist group. did bus station in the district three weeks ago killing seventy. or the breaking news story for you here on r.t. international the eastern ukrainian city of slavyansk is being stormed by ukrainian troops self-defense forces say one of the men was killed one injured as well

ukraine's interior ministry says one pilot is dead amid reports of up to possibly three helicopters being shot down the troops have seized nine protest at checkpoints according to officials and key have plans to block the rail access to the area if you're not international we will continue to keep you updated on exactly what's happening in the. art up next here on the program into the program. so push up on us a coming your way in just a minute. jeffrey chapman from kansas is going on trial for murder but he is very afraid of jury prejudice is it because the jury is full of racists or has some sort of vested

interest in seeing him get locked away no it is because he is a giant tattoo on his neck of the word murder written backwards wiser and backwards so he could read it in the mirror. nowadays we live in a total culture of almost complete entitlement so naturally chapman wants to leave jail on a special trip to a tattoo parlor to get the ugly ink changed or removed yeah because he did something stupid his appearance now it is the obligation of the government to help him fix the problem he created often on these opinion pieces i am very critical of the government but this time the man is totally right you can't just take everyone on special trips across town so they can look good for their trial it isn't the state's fault that he has the word murder on his neck the prosecutors even said that chapman that it would be ok if he covered it up with something like a stylish current for dapper turtleneck sweater it is not the job of the government to help you get rid of your very stupid and very incriminating debt to

a fascist my opinion. of the middle east peace this. news is proud of this tremendous job the peaceful thoughts and prayers to chuck the best. way you can i mean it's just brings me to. reduce hole to. right to go. see.

welcome to go on sophie shevardnadze as brussels brings in more sanctions against mosco over the crisis in ukraine when it was actually being done to settle the chaos as a bloc ready to take responsibility for the country gripped by civil unrest. an outspoken dutch politician as a guest of the program today. as these you politicians cheer on a new government in kiev this calls for european integration back home growing frustrated with the you with weeks to go to the european elections anti e.u. forces are set to make a strong showing. what's behind the euro skepticism and what does it mean for the future of the european union. character olders touch politician leader of the party

for freedom it's great to have you here on our show so we're going to just start and go ahead with your crane on there blame game going on over ukraine the u.s. and europe are pointing fingers at russia while moscow says it's too west that is to blame what do you think is responsible. well you know i think what the u.p.a. union did it was very irresponsible because in the family last year they promised. grain that they would have some kind of pretty exceptional treaty and maybe in the future become a member of the european union and we all know that this was a very delicate balance in the ukraine with fifty percent looking east towards those russia fifty percent of the population looking worse with those three o p union so i think it was very irresponsible what the european union did they should have kept out of it on the other hand i must also say that ukrainian still is even though euro made a big mistake there it is an autonomous sovereign country i should also believe

that not only the european union have stayed out of it's but also russia should really not interfere the best thing to do is the deescalate by taking the russian minority and eastern ukraine seriously give them rights and make them really feel as important as the other half of the ukraine and then i hope also russia will be able to retract not interfere as well but very talk about discoloration you mentioned that he was responsible partially for what's going on right now the result that we have which is a country on the brink of a civil war that why do you think it was so supportive in a big a thing it lacked the understanding of the complexity of the situation on the ground. well you know unfortunately the ubi union and that's very unwise wants to xpand it wants to have all the euro files and brussels wants to have more more and more members and they forget that it's not only about themselves everybody even

a child could see that the ukraine is was not a come through and ninety nine percent of the people supported the idea by joining the european union half of the country is against it was more and is more pro russia so i believe that the european union. indeed played a very irresponsible role should have kept out of it i saw even european politicians member of parliament even dutch members of parliament were standing on the square in kiev. saying saying the wrong the wrong things making the people believe that they would have all the support of the west and ignoring the fact that it was not easy situation in the real queen itself so the europe was very irresponsible but i also have to be honest it still is a sovereign country so also believe that russia should respect that the suffering t. off the ukraine and should have stayed out of the country and i hope that without the

europe and the fearing and without russian interfering things can still deescalate now without sanctions but with common sense. i think one of the keys of the solution is to take the russian minority in the east of the ukraine take them seriously european union to date should take two steps back and also russia should do the same and i hope that will be peaceful outcome that way that you're talking about discoloration and staying out of ukraine's affairs say do you think that you shouldn't help ukraine right now in this current mass. well you know the european union is responsible for the mess like i said when they said last november they promised the ukraine some kind of pre exception treaty is kind of membership this was very irresponsible and i believe you are of a small thinking about itself and expanding its its territory them with really was thinking about the whole of the ukraine let alone the stability in that region and

the stability in that region is not served by russia on the one hand and the european union all nato on the other hand i mean it's only getting more attention so it's very irresponsible with europe day it's what i would hope once again is that it would deescalate that russia would they could do steps back that the european union would take a few steps back and that if we take if the ukrainian federal government takes the rights of the russian minorities seriously and then i hope that all boss will be able to deescalate in a peaceful way that is i think where we all will benefit from the most are there a lot of politicians in here of that share your point of view i mean taking the blame partially for what's going on you're creating also trying to deescalate situation ukraine. yes i think there are more i mean there is a gap really between the vox book really to popular voice what the governments say i mean once again i'm not only blaming the european union member i mean both russia

and the european union but i have to be honest you'll be union made a terrible move and the beginning of november last year they at least partially stopped that a lot of the troubles and that analysis. is shared by more parties in the european union for sure but now the here is introducing yet more sanctions against russia are there chanting anything at all in your opinion. well you know i am not the biggest believer in sanctions it's not good for anybody it's not good for europe it's not good for russia so it's not good for ukraine so i think we should try to once again deescalate i mean if if the russian army would and would invade ukraine which i believe would be a terrible mistake then of course you could talk about sanctions but no sanctions could be even counterproductive at least if you make forward more economical

sanctions so i'm i'm i think that europe should also take part of the blame because they made big mistakes but also russia should say part of the part of the blame they also made mistakes and if the boss agree on that and focus on the ukraine and also once again take the russian minority which is an enormous minority in eastern ukraine take them seriously give them rights give them serious rights then i hope that more sanctions will be not only counterproductive but will all the also be unnecessary i hope it's not too late but we should try at least for it but like you said russia has been invaded ukraine yet so as a right now what kind of fact are european politicians hoping for with the sanctions in the netherlands there is a majority i have to say of the bodies that support the dutch government and support the point of view of the european union my party might be different once again we are not only blaming russia but we also looking at the european union and

we believe that only to have more sanctions is counterproductive for you are right even though what happened in the crim crimean region was not that we supported what russia did doubt that russia has not invaded eastern ukraine yet and i hope they won't and in order to do that sanctions i believe today council productive at least what the americans what others want to do is just to step up the sanctions to have more sanctions to pay them i don't they. really think that's will help i think to deescalate the war thought will help and threatening with sanctions and other things either way most of the time really has no positive effect now the netherlands is either as large as gas producer take cover for any loss of russian gas imports to hear up. well you know we have certainly gas in the netherlands with which i believe should be first used for the netherlands itself which is very logic of course it's our gas i believe we should use it but we also

of course export it and sell it and that is also for our economy a good thing and i don't know if we could step up to the level that russia is providing now to parts of certainly europe and eastern europe. but once again i hope it will not come to that that far that the situation will escalate i hope it will be escalate more sessions to day so to me more economic sanctions today would not only be bad for russia would also be bad for the european union for our part of europe and i think this is something that we should not want today but is there just isn't cold war style relations between the u.s. and russia is the e.u. ready to follow us it. well i hope that's not the case i hope that we will still have good relations with russia as we do with the united states on

myself and very much in favor i'm a transatlantic system more than. a fan of the european union so i cherish the role that even the dutch half within nato and i subscribe to are very good relations with the united states of america but i also believe we should have good relations with russia russia is a very important. part of the world in a very large and strong country and of course we can disagree on things we can disagree on many things with russia with united states with many other parts of the world but another cold war is something i believe that will be very bad thing that nobody is waiting for that will have beth results in the only politically but also economically with chaff will have more tensions all over the border between nato and e.c. europe or russia so i hope really and i'm not naive but i hope that we can prevent

another cold war in europe all right and say well we're going take a short break now we'll be back with that when titian get your elders to talk about the upcoming tour of their actions and their rights if you're a skepticism stay with us. live live live

live. stop rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want to live. live right on the scene lips were struck listen i think you're live. on our employers larry live live in the live.

i was born in the ukraine i grew up in a family of alcoholics as did many of my foster son's kids who had slept rough on the street since they were four years old some since they were two enough to reach . where kid i don't know because i want to help won't be able. to there was a group of kids standing by the road like you put the children here aren't even asking for food only want to some water to drink. i saw hundreds and hundreds of poverty stricken children dressed in rags. but i couldn't forget the eyes of this one boy i came back a year later to find that little kid. that was how i came by one ball foster so.

they were back with garrick welder's dutch politician leader of the party for freedom great to have you back so i want to talk about the rising cura skepticism prominent us politician and author pat buchanan i'm sure you know he's he recently said that nationalism is on the rise while globalization is a thing of the past do you share his one of you. yes i think it does but i call it myself. i'm a patriot i believe we should be all patriots i believe a lot of russians are patriots as well and we should be proud of our own country and you know what happened in the last decades is that our national sovereignty in the european union collapsed because there came a european superstate of all european elections that nobody in holland or in belgium or the united kingdom nobody not only knows them but nobody voted for them

and they are now of almost all the law making process in our own country so we lost our identity we lost our national sovereignty to the european union an institution that really a lot of people in the west don't like so much anymore i have nothing against europe but i have a lot against the european union as an organization of what we want we want to regain control over our own borders over a loan money over our own budget all rise that the rights that we have given to the bureaucrats in brussels and we all the deck i mean everybody knows that spanish people are different than swedish people my own dutch people are not the same a sport yuki's and it's a good thing there is not a european people it doesn't exist i mean several countries exist so i believe we should cooperate in an economical way with the internal markets and treat with the one and everybody can benefit from that the two should stop with the political

project call to european union because that's a big failure to be honest but you're not the only one actually voicing this concern there is france that's being actually way worried about the immigration problems so understating its borders also britain is sounding alarm do you think it's something that's going to pass or is it something that's actually going to ask a lady into something bigger. well it's not going to pass i mean let's be honest all the europhiles oldis those pro european bought these they ignore to problem they say that it's ridiculous and they ignore it and they they will not act on it and you see that parties like mine but also in the united kingdom and france we will probably if not win the elections in the end of may for the european parliament we will be one number one the number two on the national elections so millions of people a year opened that's why the elections in may so historical for euro because for

the first time millions of people because their vote against the european union people who want less european union would be a control of their own money of their own budgets of their own borroughs of the whole law making and those spot these and that's another reason why the elections will be crucial and historic will also hopefully be able to work together in the opium bollman to sound a different voice to cost the different volt in the european parliament and that will not only have an enormous effect on the european politics but also on the national politics a lot of things will change people are fed up that big fat bureaucrats in brussels who nobody elected. doing the most crazy things that are not good for our country let me give you one example we have in my country in the netherlands but in many other western european countries we have had the raising of texas we have had austerity programs of billions of euros and we send that money to greece to cyprus

to portugal to we call you being come to race and at the same time people in holland they have less money in the baucus and we send that money abroad and people are fed up with that we want seven hundred thousand unemployed people in the netherlands we don't want more immigrants from other countries to come here we want to jobs to be deaf for our own people like i think it's very logic as well also like once they cannot make gross takes out one key u.s. skepticism we can. listen i believe that for instance i want my country to leave the european union i would like us to be a second switzerland you know the country of switzerland switzerland is in the hearts of europe but is not a member of the european union and if we could still have access to the until market without being a member of the european union i think we commissioned the reports by independent bureau and it showed that only the netherlands would have

a ten percent more economical growth people would have more money in their pockets there would be more jobs in the netherlands if the hollands would leave the european union and still we could be equal trade with the other countries of the european union but we could also have more free trade agreements with other parts of europe rather is more economical growth and the euro today look at asia look at latin america look at africa there is more economic growth and that's region than europe itself and for instance switzerland switzerland already has for a few years a free trade agreement with japan that science free trade agreement with china last year your rope has neither one of them europe is still fighting between one another should we have a trade agreement with japan and china and all of which conditions so you are far more flexible outside to european union and like switzerland a very strong economical country we can deal better economically and we are in

charge of our own country again when it comes to national sovereignty so yes we would like to leave the european union and be stronger as a national country so are you saying that european union has exhausted itself in its current form because from what i remember netherlands was actually a pretty poor country like twenty thirty years ago and community has helped it become very stable and very rich. you know listen when europe started european union started in the fifty's you know nine hundred fifty seven it started in a good way and i wish it should have stayed like that because it started with economical corporation and i believe in economical cooperation i believe in three traits everybody every country can benefit from trading with one another but then after the fifty's in the sixty's the seventy's the eighty's and later it became a political project instead of economical cooperation of free trade it changed into

a kind of european superstate where politicians try to make foreign policy you will see you see what happened in the ukraine what a mess they made about it they try with one point one currency with the eurozone they try to be stronger economically and it's also this us though the western countries the north of bought a few rope eight fold assault of bought a few of our economy did not grow in the last year the netherlands had more economical growth before we entered to euro zone then after we were part of the euro zone europe did umbrella bring peace either once again the example at the ukraine where they make made a big mess of it but also in the form of a was a yugoslavia look at bosnia europe did nothing as world otto's like black america that came to help so europe was not good for our sovereignty was not good for our economy is bad for foreign policy so i believe we can be far better off outside the

eurozone and outside the european union and more and more not a majority today but more and more people and any european country share this view so i really believe that the elections later in a month's time will be historic in our continent europe said the years skeptic movement is fragmented in every here a skeptic party has different goals can you form a single block in the european parliament. well i really hope so and i'm i'm a positive guy so i really hope that we will be able to do so and look at the other groups in european parliament. bodies working together that have more differences than we have looked at the christian democrats in holland the christian democrats or the party the christian democrats from medical the disconsolate from germany they work together with the party of mr bellows kone aunts i've nothing against that but they have they have far more differences than we have with so many other

parties so i believe that it's our responsibility to try to work together i'm confident that we can work together we should overstep our differences and hey i'm not looking for a merging of the parties i don't want us to get together in one party i just want to cooperate in the political fraction in a political group in the european parliament i believe that in any institution certainly one that claims to be democratic you need a balance of power you need countervailing powers you need only not only europhiles but you also need you were skeptical about this and where the party of mrs le pen the party of mr farris ukip the party off in austria the f.b.i. and sweden we have all one thing in common we will have more powers to a national capital since that of brussels we want must suffer n.t. and we want to be stronger economically and we want to have our own foreign policy

and not a foreign policy dictated by commission us whether it's in the ukraine or anything else that we have not the elect it's crazy that we have commissioned us in charge that nobody elected in the netherlands i mean it's like it could it does almost we should get it back our powers and i believe that we will be able to work together but i can only prove it of course after the election not today but here's the other thing and moderate stance will most probably still. dominate the polls so won't the anti era threat encourage them to or closer to resist your influence. you know they are pro european already afraid they are getting nervous d.c. that we are getting popular day by day that millions of europeans will fold against the europhiles and well perhaps you remember years ago we had a referendum in france and in the netherlands on an island about the european constitution that then came into effect and while they try to make scare

people make them afraid they said well without the european union you will lose your job we will get a wall the lights will go out we have big problems and nothing of that happens in reality and people are not fooled by their threats anymore so i think we should work together i think we should we will not bring them any closer than they are today it's one bunch whether you are in the opium bollman today a liberal or christian democrats or a social democrat it's all the same they all want more money more brussels more foreign policy more problems more. transfer of the rides from the national states to brussels and there is now a group of politicians in the group of these millions of european citizens who want something else and whatever they do they will not be able to change it it's like a room being closed for decades and now somebody opens the window and

a fresh wind is entering the window which is very good for the atmosphere in that room and they will not be able to change the course of history i promise you that. mr willis it was great talking to you were talking to garrett welder's dutch politician leader of the party for freedom were talking about whether the e.u. should help ukraine encouraging mass and also what's in store for the your opinion after they snail actions in european parliament. that's it for this edition of said next time. zachary what happened that day i don't know but

a woman killed. piers later is when i got arrested for. for a crime i did not do. we have numerous cases where police officers lie about polygraph results. innocent people to confess to police officers don't beat people anymore i mean it just doesn't happen really. in the course of interrogation why because there's been this is like meant no because the psychological techniques are more effective in obtaining confessions than physical abuse and they were often they could get what they wanted they can say what they wanted and there was no evidence of what they did or what they said. he'd. slipped under walsh on the watch and these college face i describe you know he.

was. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm sure. to teach.

breaking news here on r t international one. and one pilot reportedly killed in eastern ukraine troops of launch an attack on an anti government protester held city the city of. nato's a second in command reportedly says russia is not considered an enemy. because of its role in the ukrainian crisis. heads to washington with a strong message from german big business siemens and. the major. against more sanctions on russia.

it's a big day for news here on r.t. international. thank you for joining us and straight to our breaking news for you here on the program ukrainian troops have stormed the eastern city of slovyansk which is held by antigovernment protesters the interior ministry saying the army has taken several self-defense fighters hostage security forces have at least one helicopter was down other reports suggested it could be up to three interior ministry says one pilot is dead and several soldiers are injured by locals and self defense forces report one man has been killed in a series in the region she has this report. we are hearing from a local self-defense commander that at least one helicopter has dropped soldiers near the town of slavyansk and reports just in suggest that one pilot has been

killed and another has been taken hostage there is heavy fighting happening in the vicinity of the railway station locals have been telling us that they have been hearing cannons being fired in the outskirts of the town we also understand that at least one checkpoint has been taken now several checkpoints have come under attack reinforcements by these self-defense units are being brought to checkpoints that man and control all the roads in and out of slavyansk we spoke to one resident inside the besieged town early in the morning a major operation on the city where armored vehicles came to the outskirts of the city where the fighting is going on in the center of the city troops are being dropped in by helicopters that are also right sector members we also understand that at least eight armored vehicles have been seen right up close near the town of slavyansk we are hearing reports of injuries we also understand that the police

station has come under attack there is heavy fighting being reported in the vicinity of the police station now as you can well imagine telephone lines are very very poor we're struggling to speak with people inside the city the town has been expecting this there is an atmosphere of panic and fear indeed the reports have been taken seriously that the ukrainian army is planning to launch such an attack and at the same time we understand that the ukrainian army is using both ground troops and air support. is getting all of us up to date with what's happening in slavyansk you can follow her twitter feed for the very latest updates on the reported military operation. in the. it's already international here the injured pilot from a helicopter which was downed by self-defense forces is currently having surgery in

slovyansk this apparently is a photo of him post crash that was posted on social media of the man helping him to safety are apparently pro autonomy activists now the leaders in kiev previously admitted the army is unable to quell unrest in the east and international relations expert moxley border believes the pressure from radical groups is forcing them to try and reverse that. a few days ago we saw a massive. late night march by torchlight ultranationalists through downtown kiev that entered then into a riot that were demanding that the regime either take decisive military action to take control of the country or that it would be overthrown if i may we did manage to speak to one of the self-defense come on is on the ground just for a moment let's pause and have a quick listen to what he had to say at the moment right sector and military are

coming closer to the city we are planning to have long the attack so far at least two helicopters have been destroyed and one injured pilot is now receiving the a there are no casualties on the side of still defense quartz and there will be no more because they are stay not sure our motherland the right sector is an alliance of ultra nationalist groups that have received thorough paramilitary training for years now and we know that they have several thousand members just recently their leader a force of a thousand right sector to help control eastern ukraine they are fanatics they are the ones who are willing to kill and be killed in order to further this national revolutionary state that has been created in kiev we will continue to do very closely follow the situation in eastern ukraine or a military operation to retake the protester held city of stuff now appears to be underway details coming your way as soon as we get it.

from now on nato will view russia as an enemy not a part of the blocs deputy head has reportedly told this to journalists he said more troops could be sent to the region to counter what the alliance sees as russian aggression in ukraine details here with r.t. his guy nature can. a top nato official says the alliance now sees russia as an enemy alexander vershbow the deputy secretary general of nato also served as the us ambassador to russia ten years ago was quoted as saying clearly the russians have declared nato was an adversary so we have to begin to view russia no longer as a partner but as more of an adversary than a partner is true that over the last couple of decades has expressed indignation over nato has broken promises over nato expansion to russian borders for years moscow it felt cheated because the u.s. in one nine hundred ninety promised not to expand nato but since then

a. twelve european nations to the alliance but despite its moscow it still cooperated with nato on a number of soap global importance like ghana stand up for making nonproliferation in a pro nato suspended all practical civilian and military cooperation with russia although russia has maintained its diplomatic mission nato alexander went on to say that nato is considering the deployment of substantial numbers of combat forces. either permanently or on bases other nato officials talked about sending more fighter jets full member states this will mean more military spending we remember the u.s. president call on europeans to chip in and to spend more on nato and this could also mean more tensions because with the military buildup may come of the buildup of fear we did speak to a former pentagon official michael maloof he believes these comments should not be regarded as nato as official starts. it was an unfortunate statement because it

basically draws a picture of russia and europe has been adversaries when there's a tremendous trade going on between russia and europe so i think that there's more room among the nato countries probably more mature level headed people particularly in europe who see the need to work with russia rather than to treat it as an an adversary or an enemy as such i believe merkel is coming under pressure from major german companies who want no more sanctions imposed against russia over the ukrainian crisis it will make it hard to push for stricter penalties and that's likely to be the message from merkel when she meets barack obama on friday evening or the two were booked in for a four hour dinner at the white house all are reports on a some of the possible sticking points likely to be on the friday night made. it's

said to be a meeting between two of the world's most powerful leaders but there are more than rumblings that the balance of power in the relationship is very one sided at heart then doesn't stand up and gets there this is based in dependency is the us denied spine and merkel cell phone ben admitted it no it just continues because a mama says words are of the right to collect information i just see angola merkel going to the us to pick up the new instructions. the chancellor has come in for rebuke at home for not pushing to allow edward snowden to give testimony at an investigation into n.s.a. activity in person her critics saying that she's looking to protect the image of the u.s. parties this is merkel's visit won't just be watched closely in germany many in europe are angry that no leader really stood up to the actions of the u.s. in the aftermath of snowden's revelations. i think the single most proof of the

coordinates of governments and the unwillingness to actually tackle those in a meaningful way despite what they would say publicly was when the. european countries closed their airspace and forced the. the president the plane over. to learned in austria on a hunch or suspicion that edward snowden was on board trid is set to play a major role in the talks negotiations are still ongoing over the transatlantic trade and investment partnership or which could see an easing of current restrictions on the surface this could see both the e.u. and u.s. profit motive what cost to consumers genetically modified food hormone treated beef and chicken. eggs us in germany ninety six percent of people think that e.u. standards on environmental protection are better than the u.s. on car safety the figures show ninety one percent in favor of the e.u.

and on data protection eighty five percent didn't think the u.s. standards were up to the job more transparency is needed in te tip talks say those standing against this is merkel's party in upcoming elections with. the whole negotiations are taking place behind closed doors amongst a small number of people we must be vigilant when this type of deal is done with third world nations often attempts to undermine the legal system of that land we will not accept this. the ongoing situation in ukraine looks a certainty to be discussed but while both the u.s. and e.u. have bent sanctions they've taken different forms representing europe to close the economic and energy bond to russia while germany and the united states remain the firmest of friends on the international stage when i'm going to medical sits down for talks with barack obama it looks likely that there will be some issues they

certainly don't see eye to eye on. r.t. . we asked michael hudson an economics professor at the university of missouri if you think position on the sanctions will change. well the germans are very clear that they are not going to pursue sanctions that hurt german and the string that would be the straw that broke the camel's back and there is some discussion and germany about do we want to really remain part of nato if we don't have a voice in it do we really want to sacrifice german industry so that american industry can move in and take over the markets that the german industry has this is an american market grabbing opportunity from germany and you can be sure that within merkel's own christian democratic party there is a big argument over whether germany should make the sacrifice of its industry for american industry just because america says plenty more stories ahead for you here

when r.t. international including how much does it cost the u.s. to tackle afghanistan's drug industry of course and all the latest updates on our breaking news out of east ukraine it's all it's international we are back in just a book. deal. or.

cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want. it's quarter past the hour moscow time it's r.t.e. international with me role research showing efforts to tackle the drug production in afghanistan of course the us billions of dollars but still opium production is

at zero record high a cooperation between moscow and washington serves to put pressure on the illegal trade worldwide but the amount of money directly into afghanistan had little effect on the level of drugs flowing out of europe russia and the u.s. are all on the receiving end of the afghan drug trade which is responsible for eighty percent of the world's opium production heroin production is also sought it's now forty times higher than in two thousand and one and over one million drug addicts are estimated to have died in just the past decade but earnings from the trade are in the billions of dollars as artie's reports addiction is taking its toll on afghan society. there. are a lot of still ravaged by drugs with no help in sight this is the face of addiction in afghanistan one of many. beneath the bridge in the center of kabul a foul smelling sewer not school grades as

a river and on its banks among the refuse. men with haunted eyes and hollow stares. every day there are more they huddle in the shadows but there's no need to hide the police don't bother coming here. the supply is cheap there's heroin opium too and the tools to consume them. last year at denniston recorded its largest opium harvest ever and the scene behind me tell the story of just how devastating that's been for the people here the men that gather here are part of a growing addiction epidemic according to the united nations more than a million afghans are addicted to heroin and opium out of a population of some thirty eight million people which makes up ghana's than not just the world's top exporter of the drugs but one of its top consumers to them and that's despite billions of dollars and more than a decade of western efforts to curb narcotics here is going to study i don't know

where the money go there's no help they can push for us to use this time for sort of the possible first to get it won't you this it is official treatment clinics are struggling to cope we have come. for treatment god is trying to go on to the last. kind of car not more than ten percent but ninety percent without any sounds. feet in d.c. . as out like that that is. like i don't it person like this is good light. which makes these men some of the lucky few they're getting help it may not be a traditional facility but it's a place to call home for up to twenty addicts at a time there's no medication just group therapy but they say the treatment works

this woman they call mother layla harder we was haunted by her brother struggle with heroin appalled at the growing number of addicts and the lack of help so she stepped in she opened the treatment center and later this restaurant it pays for the expenses and gives the addicts a place to work but in this traditional society it's cost her more than money. my husband didn't approve of this and left me i haven't been able to see my children since then i've been threatened and even beaten here but missing my children has been hardest for now this is family i love but. we're back at the clinic checks in with the addicts some turn to heroin as refugees in iran or pakistan others were driven to drugs by economic despair when you have no work no opportunity it's like death you cannot be productive so you take drugs to escape. this former policeman began smoking opium after losing his leg to

a landmine an addict for twelve years thanks to a clinic clean for almost one. i made a decision to change my life around i tried many times before but now i have support. it's a small victory but again a stance battle with drugs is likely to rage on. r.t.e. kabul. you can see it many more places first time reports straight from afghanistan to be immediate days ahead right here on r.t. international. malnutrition. violence. drug addiction. poverty. corruption. what are the values you lucy company reports on afghan realities.

thanks for sharing some of your friday with us here on r.t. international in may two thousand and four the biggest single enlargement in the e.u. is history took place little did the new members know that a decade on the union will be struggling with the recession and unemployment and austerity. and whether the newcomers made a wise choice. wild parties rocked ten european capitals in may the first two thousand and four as the e.u. became larger by ten countries for some of the new members like cyprus and malta this move had a purely economic motivations while for the rest mostly former socialist bloc states this was the chance to make a clean break from the communist past now a decade on these countries are looking at whether the e.u. accession really brought them joy poland is probably one of the happiest members of the e.u. to join in two thousand and four new road striking export figures and relatively intact from recession mainly because analysts say war so kept its currency instead

of euro and even the clear downside from e.u. membership the population after millions of skilled pulls left to western europe once borders became obsolete is not a deterrent still more than sixty seven percent of poles are happy to be part of the union the situation is slightly different in the czech republic later s'pore suggest that thirty seven percent are not in favor of being part of the e.u. family way thirty five percent supporting it the rest are undecided this may be down to the czechs feeling better living standards have not come as fast as they wanted them to come and sometimes they also made their feelings known during the protests when washington was planning to place an anti-missile shield on their territory in opinion you can often hear in the czech republic is that they do not like brussels bureaucracy and being told what to do over the past five years hungary has been one of the most vocal critics of the european union particularly its freshly reelected prime minister viktor orban they have even been suggestions

voiced in budapest hungary could hold a referendum on exiting the union the reasons for such skepticism lie within the economy that well for two thousand and four the cheap goods flooded the market traditionally an agricultural powerhouse and many farmers lost their markets and means to survive. that happen is that their country being forced to pay for the economic. the e.u. member states speaking of which one of the ten newcomers to the e.u. in two thousand and four cyprus is probably the least happy these are quite selling pictures from last year when the island suffered economic collapse and tens of thousands protested against the e.u.'s bailout plan which almost completely crippled the country's banking system a year on the island's economy is slowly recovering but the anger of losing a lot more money has not subsided among cypriots the two thousand and four accepted e.u. members are split about their decade within the family of twenty eight states not all of them have perfect ties with brussels but ten years after the e.u.

accepted stand new states in one swipe it's now a lot more careful when it comes to enlargement. let's get a bit of a global snapshot for you on the program time for the. sliced into a railway baltimore where a major storm is going to new wing its march on america's east coast the sinkhole swallowed a row of parked cars with lamp posts and trees prompted a fairly hasty evacuation of the locals in the neighborhood united states has suffered massive downpours hail thunderstorms over one hundred tornadoes for five days death toll now at thirty seven. over two thousand protesters in the capital and fake coffins to call for an end to the president president

martelly riot police and u.n. peacekeepers dispersed protesters who had attempted to block a major road this is the anti-government protest in just one week. to nigeria where a bomb blast in the capital has killed nineteen sixty more injured witnesses say laden with explosives blew up next to a security services checkpoint and no group has admitted to carrying out the attack but the islamist group boko haram did bomb a bus station in that district three weeks ago killed seventy five. now a recap of breaking news this hour here on r t international a storming of the eastern ukrainian city of slavyansk by ukrainian troops the defense ministry says two pilots have been killed following the downing of a number of helicopters several of the soldiers have been injured self defense forces say one of their man has died troops have seized ten of protest at checkpoints and captured several self-defense fighters that's according to

officials protesters have reportedly started building barricades inside the city here in austin international we will keep you posted as every hour goes by of exactly what is happening in stuff you. know it's great to have you with us here in our international stepaside the people of bell is program cross talk but up next. jeffrey chapman from kansas is going on trial for murder but he is very afraid of jury prejudice is it because the jury is full of racists or has some sort of vested interest in seeing him get locked away no it is because he is a giant tattoo on his neck of the word murder written backwards wise or written

backwards so he could read it in the mirror. nowadays we live in a total culture of almost complete and total myth so naturally chapman wants to leave jail on a special trip to a tattoo parlor to get the ugly ink changed or removed yeah because he did something stupid his appearance now it is the obligation of the government to help him fix the problem he created often on these opinion pieces i am very critical of the government but this time the man is totally right you can't just take everyone on special trips across town so they can look good for their trial it isn't the state's fault that he. he has the word murder on his neck the prosecutors even said that chapman that it would be ok if he covered it up so you know with something like a stylish car for dapper turtleneck sweater it is not the job of the government to help you get rid of your very stupid and very incriminating debt too but that's just my opinion.

these.

are low and welcome the ground for all things considered i'm people of the arab spring but never was almost four years on it would appear that people's revolutions in the middle east have actually only empowered the forces of reaction and resulted in extreme repression and violence is the middle east. by western backed dictators . to cross talk the arab spring i'm joined by my guest the bill ramadan the in london . she is a journalist and commentator on arab affairs also in london we have to be cadman he is an international criminal lawyer and serves on the board of the syrian commission for justice and accountability and in norman we cross to joshua landis he is director of the center of middle east studies at the university of oklahoma crosstalk rules in fact and you can jump in anytime you want to go to you first in london you wrote an article recently egypt comes full circle the end of the arab

spring why did you write it and what does it mean. whoa i've been following events in egypt for some time i joined a group of lawyers in november that was looking at documenting crimes that occurred during the recent military coup and then following the the targeting of the muslim brotherhood and their supporters we saw a court sentenced five hundred twenty nine people to death many of them sent to you and i as an international lawyer i found the whole process i'm so offensive that i thought that writing about nobility and we should we still use the term arab spring or arab awakening is that appropriate anymore because if we go across the entire region if there is a lot of tears to say the least. well of course the term arab spring first start was coined by western journalists to describe the did spectacular scale

of movements of protests that swept across the middle east and north africa three years ago now and also to describe the domino effect of those protests effectively affecting one country are after the other in the region and egypt specifically even though the arab spring the so-called arab spring started in tunisia. following effectively the humiliation of a fruit seller by a police woman a vigilante effectively who led this fruit seller to set himself on fire but that self immolation was in fact the expression of frustration at the the series of problems affecting the arab world not least of all and first and foremost you know autocratic rule for decades often in many countries but also endemic corruption lack of opportunity social and economic opportunities and you know the lack of fundamental human rights in egypt has effectively become the focal point to have

this square has become the focal point of the you know hope and optimism but it also has become the country which sums up both disick sess of the arab spring it was swift mubarak was removed in eighteen days and also captures now the failure of the arab spring with effectively the return of a military strongman backed by a corrupt judiciary and indeed a murderous army but it has to be said that the arab spring these are not going process is by no means ended. and it's still going on you know crucially in countries like syria where the civil war is still very you know when it's very much lately we go to trial and let me go to joshua judge would you like still live picture a marriage bring arab awakening is it does it resonate with you now considering what we've seen particularly in egypt and i guess also as newbuild pointed out in syria. well it doesn't really anymore and the below is absolutely right the west

gave it the name of arab spring because the west looked at this through the prism of democracy and it and tried to explain what broke out from tunisia through the rest of the arab world in terms of a desire for dignity and democracy and of course that wasn't a very important part but there was a much larger story which is the economic pressures that nebula pointed out and the growing pains of national definition of coming out of dynastic empire the ottoman empire and trying to develop some kind of national integrity where the nation the people below would actually be the sovereigns of their own destiny and of their nation to be able to decide what kind of governments we have sort of broken halfway through that and then we've gone to this reaction because in many ways we've seen the crumbling of very weak nation states in libya in syria in

yemen and it's created. it's created great fear throughout the middle east that somehow the arab states are not going to be able to break in to this democratic. fourth wave that so many people hoped it would do because of economic failures failures of political culture and very few people have talked about the political culture side of this and but really i think underneath it all is an economic question of poverty inequality and so forth you know toby if you look at it we could name all the countries but it seems like them most of the elites are still in place the deep state is that it's often referred to you can change the coloration of the landscape but it's still the same people that own the economy and benefit from the economy and not average people. do i think that's right and i think.

of is is entirely correct. one of the one of the concerns is. certainly in my work a look at syria and egypt is looking at the economic instability not just trying to. look at it through the prism of democracy but looking at these nations can. stabilize long term i mean i spent before many years before the arab spring i spent many many years in bosnia doing was with many of the same problems. from an accountability perspective and rebuilding a state through economic development and you see the collapse. in bosnia repeating shows that we we haven't learned very much in how to address many of these problems whether you're looking at it through. a process of

accountability or a process or of economic rebuilding but it is more that we just don't seem to. joshua pointed out and you put it at the beginning that the arab spring arab awakening this is a western but really what's happened also is that we have political islam on the rise as well added with the lections and this is a complication that the west certainly doesn't understand and there's joshua pointed out maybe there aren't political cultures in place that can adapt to the islamic element with the democratic and secular element this is one of the huge stumbling blocks that we've seen over the last few years well absolutely not just over the last few years but if you look at you know historically western powers have always supported so-called secular governments in syria for example or indeed in iraq and the idea is you put a minority of people in charge of the country and there you divide and rule and that's what's happened you know. fundamentally the make up of most countries in the

middle east following the. first world war when a victorious powers effectively carved up swathes of the middle east and to themselves then and indeed put in place the so-called secular governments now of course part and parcel of the culture of those countries is that they are fundamentally for the vast majority of them muslim majority countries so it's only right that you know people feel a cultural but also religious attachment to that heritage and this of course following the toppling of despots led to the expression of that culture and lead to islamic movement or winning elections and all the more so since you know you have to bear in mind events like the war on terror where you know this led

to america effectively telling autocrats to repress any expression of islam where and muslims became you know potential terrorists across the arab world and the takeover if you like of muslim always movements post arab spring has led to some dissatisfaction in western capital gains if you judge or how much of this is really just the end of the the neo colonial experiment the west has had for this region because this is also a dynamic that's being played out in the build up. well there is that element that she said that minorities were put in to were given a leg up in every one of the eleven states in particular by the colonial powers and today you see the majority populations trying to overthrow them whether it's the shiites in iraq overthrowing the cinese the sunni arabs in syria overthrowing the alawite and other minorities are we saw in lebanon during the civil war with the

muslims fighting against the christians who had been given the lion's share of power and still today we have palestinians fighting against israelis and jews in for control of palestine so this is a national problem. of who owns the state who really represents the nation that's certainly in the levante and it's much like we saw in eastern europe central europe throughout the first half of the twentieth century where there was such extreme bloodshed we're still seeing it in crimea who are the real crimea is are they russians are the ukrainians are they taught tars and and these national questions have not been decided and in the center of it as you say is political islam and is the question of the enlightenment really is citizenship based on. troops with a big t. on god and who are the chosen people who are going to go to heaven or is it based on citizenship of the nation of that everybody is equal within the nation and yet

there is still a great disagreement about that and we see that in the syrian fighting for example both sides are calling each other calf it unbelievers and not only are they unbelievers but they they don't belong to the nation to syria if they don't believe in the right god and it's very difficult to build a nation when you see the other your opponents your political opposites as people who don't even belong in the country and that i need to civil war joshua let me jump in here and we're going to go to a quick short break and after that break we'll continue our discussion on the arab spring stay with r.t. .

i marinate join me on. that impartial and financial reporting commentary contributor and much much. only on the bus and. play right to seek. search tree. and i predict future. play. on our reporters' twitter. and instagram click. click click and the olympics.

play. i was born in the ukraine i grew up in a family of alcoholics as did many of my foster sons their kids who had slept rough on the street since they were four years old some since they were two enough i'm a northridge man we are here and carry on now because when i want to help fall before. there was a group of kids standing by the road like you put the children here aren't even asking for food only wanted some water to drink. i saw hundreds and hundreds of poverty stricken children dressed in rags. but i couldn't forget the eyes of this one boy the little so i came back a year later to find the little kid who. has been a big. tent was how i came by one more foster so.

welcome back to cross talk we're all things are considered peter lavelle to mind you we're discussing the arab spring. ok i'd like to go back to the bill in london i think one of the interesting things that happened the last few years in the region is saudi arabia's role in a very reactionary regime and its funding quite a few people that are just as reactionary in the region and i'm thinking of like the military government in egypt of course we have the civil war going on in syria but this is a important dynamic as well saudi arabia's new role or growing role and political change. well absolutely and not least of all because saudi arabia is absolutely

terrified that to see arab spring happening again that's why it's reacting in the most reactionary and indeed repressive in not trying to protect matter man or interfering not only you know interfering you know in what's happening around around saudi arabia and other internal affairs of other countries and it has you know. terrified as i said because. the swift change that can happen very suddenly in countries and see. despots being toppled almost overnight and that's why it also sought to strengthen its links with western democracies and seek further help and not least of all in terms of military help it has you know we've seen powers western powers like the u.k. france and indeed america sell vast volumes of weapons to saudi arabia and

straighten its business and trade links so if western democrats think that it's the right time to reassure not a critic regime like saudi arabia it really doesn't get disappearance of the arab spring you know tobie it's very interesting because you have this regime in riyadh then you have washington again it's a stressful relationship we're told but nonetheless it continues on so we have western values and we have values coming out of riyadh they don't actually mix very well do they but that's called religion we're told. it's a very interesting way of putting it think probably the relationship is very similar with my own government here in london. because we can see that there is because of the steps the saudis have taken in relation to the brotherhood. in that part of the world and a lot of the statements of issued in relation to to egypt in particular and you can

see the relationship now with the british government in conducting what's driving called a review of the muslim brotherhood here in r.t. kingdom. it is an it is an uneasy relationship but you can still see that the saudis are using their influence on on the western powers it joshua it seems to me that the saudis and the western powers have something in common they don't like to say it publicly but they they would like to do perfectly would prefer to have some kind of or a republican militarism in the middle east states that's more manageable for the two sides that i'm talking about. well they don't know i think the united states is in complete confusion about what it wants in the middle east anymore our main relationships are with israel and saudi arabia both powers have wanted military leadership in egypt and that's been a driving force in this arab spring and america has fallen in line with them and

that has confused there are discourse about democracy entirely and so we begin to look extremely hypocritical there's no doubt about it we're helping were allied with the most islamist and fundamentalist nation in the middle east and that of course you know so when saudi arabia speaks out against atheism and and other political parties the united states is confused how do you support a pro western element in syrian opposition when saudi arabia is in charge of funding this operation america's not going to fundamentally supply it so america has really stepped out there confused they've seen syria for example become much more to ask the recent advances in the north a country by rebels has been led by the know sort of the al qaeda element and and the united states is is for the rebels and yet at the same time it's against al qaida and it doesn't it's completely confused and and that has you know that has i

think led to america with drawing from the region. ok inability i mean. so it's hard to say you know bill look at the outside forces particularly the western powers i mean they drew all these boundaries in the first place have they are acted responsibly because if joshua points out you get very different messages you have democracy promotion but you have to protect israel and then you have saudi arabia which i don't think anybody really knows what to do with anymore because they have enormous wealth in the city of london in the united states and the there is plenty of people in the west just want to turn a blind blind eye to their activities when it's so contradictory almost on every single front. well yes absolutely and as joshua rightly said what the arab spring did this bring into sharp focus the ambiguous and indeed hypocritical relationship between western governments and the arab world and america's foreign

policy in particular is interesting because obama. obama's first and foremost aim is to maintain america's interests in the arab world in particular but he has actually trying to find a balance between achieving that and indeed while actually retreating as much as possible which lead to very muddled policies in the arab world and indeed confused one as joshua said and effectively let two distinct this quote as we've seen in egypt you know america is still funding the military and effectively supporting a murderous army and a stable militarized is good foot to reassure israel libya was the closest that the americans you know intervened in fact and he has led to now a very controversial intervention in

a country now ruled by militias which is which are destabilizing not only and threatening. libyan. lives but also lives in other countries in the region and as far as the middle east peace process is concerned van sample palestinian territories are still very much under israeli occupation occupation gaza is more than ever an open air prison and indeed america is not firm at all about you know freezing the settlements illegal settlements which are the major stumbling block to finding a peaceful solution and let's not forget that peaceful. settlement of the middle east process and the resolution of these really palestinian company is also a guarantee for stability and peace in the whole of the region you know job we have done so far over the last few years to go essentially nowhere it would seem. but it is quite right and i think both of what joshua said is completely right when we're

talking about back confused politics and capitals not really knowing how to address some of these problems would be looking at syria in particular. that you know we have unfortunately very very confused western capitals memory what to do how to provide support whether intervention is justified. has become a very very difficult situation knowing. really what kind of assistance and who can be assisted i mean since syria is one of the areas where i've spent the majority of my time physically obviously working over the last few years and in trying to look at a much more on a on a just a side rather than a political transition just because it is it is very difficult at this stage to have any viable political opposition that can be in place to to

implement some form of change and i don't think that we've advanced very far and i think the confused policies of the west has contributed to a lack of a cohesive strategy and here we are no further forward than we were three years ago but there's one difference josh if i go to you there's one difference and that is the possible reaching out to iran and this is something that we have we've never we haven't seen for what three decades and now we see we have this terrible mess going on in the middle east but we still have some kind of communication with god and i think that's a really interesting irony well it is that but before i talk about iran let me jump in and say it's very easy to blame much of what's going on on the west and it's confuse policies and they certainly have been they have been very contradictory over the decades the but i think it's important to to underline that much of this

is going to rest with the middle easterners themselves they have to find a way out of this their populations have become too big in many ways this is like. central europe after world war one the great powers drew lines after the empires were destroyed and in europe there were seventeen new nation states after world war one in the middle east there were many as well and the peoples were not reorganized to fit with the national borders that were drawn and what we saw during the second world war is an extremely bloody process in which minorities were destroyed and the great sorting out is what i call that. fitting very important to me a do thank you for cast that in the middle east the great sorting out because we are essentially saying ethnic cleansing it is happening it is what happening before our eyes it is happening ethnic cleansing and we've seen it go on as as people fight over who's nation it is we are seeing minorities get destroyed in some cases

the minorities have become the majority in palestine israel the minority of jews were able to destroy the majority of palestinians and make themselves into the majority and that's what we've been seeing and palestinians have been largely left stateless and and but this process in lebanon in iraq in syria has been going on it's very painful it's very bloody and it's much like what happened in central europe where poland was sixty four percent polish before world war two by the end of world war two almost one hundred percent and czechoslovakia twenty three percent minorities by the end of world war two they had been wiped out the germans said denton's the jews and so forth and this national building process which is the extraordinarily painful and brutal is taking place in the middle east and there are many losers and i think the west is confused because there's really very little that could do it try to go into iraq and rearrange

a power sharing and it failed miserably on that very different things you know josh it would have run out of time many thanks to my guests in london and in norman and thanks to our viewers for watching us here in our d.c. . next time remember process. i was born in the ukraine i grew up in a family of alcoholics as did many of my foster sons dead kids who had slept rough on the street since they were four years old some since they were two enough i'm in north ridge man we are here in kin and now because where i want to help fall before

. there was a group of kids standing by the road like you put the children here aren't even asking for food only want to some water to drink. i saw hundreds and hundreds of poverty stricken children dressed in rags. but i couldn't forget the eyes of this one boy came back a year later to find the little kid who. has been a big shout. but that was how i came by one will foster so. war is probably the most complex and difficult to.

answer. to the phenomenon of friendly fire probably extends back to the invention of gunpowder. kill a bunch of people who don't know what their premises are really us people. reading. this summer shoots my brother in the leg not intentionally because of it because it was night times four in the morning even the best even the best shoulders. are going to make mistakes this is this whole idea of brotherhood author. and camaraderie in this sense it was in this context it has absolutely no place. i want to feel if you don't buy. the trailer i thought as to. which.

i don't believe by any means that. it is cut out of the same cloth as his father who is so totally powerful in control later in fact he may not be fully in charge. of. this immediate leave us so we leave the people. of the scene potions to cure the. party isn't. with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all on politicking only on our t.v. . unfortunately the european union and that's very unwise wants to expand it wants to have all the euro fall some brussels will still have more more and more members so they forget that it's

not only about themselves. in the middle east peace talks this afternoon news is proud of this tremendous chance to prove the peaceful dr to chart the best way. so first up this way if you like minutes just pinch minikin young you should all be ready does hold to engage the peace process with close. to us the bible we now cross direct to go as a teacher at the bottom of the palestinians for pleasure said to the love as you can see. with the ninety six bones this will be you recognize israel and thing for ya.

well if you're going to like these. people. pleasure to have you with us today. right to see. her straight. on a reporter's. instrument. to

be in the. news for you this hour here on our. latest numbers now at least three people a killed and several injured in eastern ukraine troops. the government protest. nato. reportedly says russia is now considered an enemy. because of its role in the ukrainian crisis. heads to washington with a strong message from big business. against. russia.

it's a busy day for news here on r.t. international for me rory sushi and the entire news team thank you very much for joining us straight to our breaking news for you here on the program this is the map for you ukrainian troops have stormed the eastern city of slovyansk which is held by antigovernment protesters officials say two pilots died after a pair of helicopters were gunned down while local self-defense forces report one of their men has been killed interior ministry also says the army has taken several self-defense fighters hostage graham phillips has managed to get into slovyansk and now joins me live here on r.t. to give us the very latest here greg hello it's rory and moscow hope you can hear me ok any sign away you are of the fighting calming down at this point hi rory i can hear. i'm right in the center of slavyansk at the moment you can see behind me

city hall and there's a crowd master round so here in the center we've basically got a blockade as what's happened is the protonix movement has effectively had to move in to enclose its territory right in the center of the city with the perimeter now being surrounded by ukrainian forces i was out there speaking today and they've now stated that they've taken nine of these protein nets blockades their tact early in the morning they were helicopters we got reports of helicopters downed we're going to ports of deaths both sides now reported and we got these people out in the center of slovyansk and it's very emotional scenes these people be telling me that they're afraid for their lives the soldiers now that ukraine soldiers in circling the city avakov has indicated they might be given orders to actually invade to come into slavyansk even today so the city's in lockdown roads are deserted and these people have come out in solidarity to express their support of this this this movement that we have here this antic here movement and they say that these soldiers have come they said the soldiers have come to kill them so they've come to support we've also got members of the anti forces here in the same day but their

area has been reduced to right in the center of slavyansk with the checkpoints outside having been stormed in attacked by the ukrainian army in the early hours of the morning. and we've actually been able to speak to a member of the self defense as i understand here with r.t. . but i was apparently happening on the outskirts of the city the ring is closing in on him and located our men are preparing for a battle we fight a little chase this hunter from our city. so these people have come on their bodies pressing similar sentiments people have been beseeching maybe making calls to the outside world which is help people have come and they've said to me that we're normal people we're times people we will ourselves fight against what they call these key end of hunters that we were very strong scenes that we've got an emergency meeting with the people's money about just not tenable we have got a lot of the city way behind me we've got

a chance of russia but we're going through the emotional scenes here in the city of slavyansk which is that way back to old encircled ananda see each designer graham phillips a reporter yeah ok we've got you and it's a bit noisy there as well do stay with us we'll check in with you throughout the day graham phillips on r.t. international thank you. we can always get a first time pictures on the very latest updates graham's twitter feed is ramping up its reporting from the heart of the unrest in sloviansk where a military operation continues to unfold. the in the. now this is footage purportedly showing one of the helicopters gunned down by self defense forces near slavyansk so according on the internet and we've been unable to verify it so far the defense ministry has confirmed at least two helicopters were downed while reports suggest it could well be up to three. one injured helicopter pilot is currently undergoing surgery in slavyansk this apparent. footage of him

off to the crash scene of the man helping him to safety are reportedly pro autonomy activists you know the leaders in kiev have previously admitted the army is unable to quell the on the rest of the east international relations expert mocks the border he believes the pressure from radical groups is forcing them to try and reverse that. a few days ago we saw a massive. late night march by torchlight ultra nationalist downtown kiev that entered then into riots that were demanding that the regime either take decisive military action to take control of the country or that it would be overthrown if i may we did manage to speak to one of the self-defense come on is on the ground just for a moment let's pause and have a quick listen to what he had to say at the moment right sector and military are coming closer to the city we are planning to meet along the it sags so far at least

to have a culture as has been destroyed and one injured pilot is now receiving the a there are no casualties on the side of still defense quotes and there will be no more because they are stay not sure our motherland the right sector is an alliance of ultra nationalist groups that have received thorough paramilitary training for years now and we know that they have several thousand members just recently their leader a force of a thousand right sector to help control eastern ukraine they are fanatics they are the ones who are willing to kill and be killed in order to further this national revolutionary state that has been created and you know this isn't the first offensive launched by ukraine's military on pro-war tone i mean protesters in southeast ukraine last month an operation was launched in the dawn yet screecher with some of the tanks that was sent ended up siding with activists as soon as they entered the rest of region and just

a week ago kiev launched its first crackdown on protesters and with members of the right sector group taking part. we will be closely following the situation in eastern ukraine where a military operation to retake the protester held city of slavyansk is well underway will bring you details as soon as we get them right here on r.t. international. i. from now on nato will view russia as an enemy not of patna the books deputy head is reportedly told this to journalists he said more troops could be sent to the region to counter what the alliance sees as russian aggression in ukraine guy nature can reports. a top nato official says the alliance now sees russia as an enemy alexander vershbow the deputy secretary general of nato who also served as the us ambassador to russia two years ago was quoted as saying clearly the russians have

declared nato as an adversary so we have to begin to view russia no longer as a partner but as more of an adversary than a partner is true that russia over the last couple of decades has expressed indignation over nato has broken promises over nato expansion to russian borders for years moscow and felt cheated because the us in one nine hundred ninety promised not to expand nato but since then a. twelve eastern european nations to the alliance but despite this moscow it still cooperated with nato on a number of soap global importance like ghana stand up trafficking nonproliferation in a pro nato suspended all practical civilian and military cooperation with russia although russia has maintained its diplomatic mission to nato alexander went on to say that nato is considering the deployment of substantial numbers of combat forces. either permanently or on a patient basis other nato officials talked about sending more fighter jets full

member states this will mean more military spending we remember the u.s. president calling europeans to chip in and to spend more on nato and this could also mean more tensions because with the military buildup may come of the buildup of fear we did speak to form a pentagon official michael maloof well he believes that despite these comments so there might be some alternative viewpoints inside nato itself. it was an unfortunate statement because it basically draws a picture of russia and europe has been adversaries when there's a tremendous trade going on between russia and europe so i think that there's more room among the nato countries probably more mature level headed people particularly in europe who see the need to work with russia rather than to treat it as an adversary or an enemy such. as coming under pressure from major german

companies who want no more sanctions imposed against russia over the ukrainian crisis it will make it hard for berlin to push for stricter penalties and that's a likely to be the message from when she meets barack obama on friday evening other two a booked in for a four hour dinner date at the white house. reports on a some of the sticking points are expected to be on their friday menu it's sent to be a meeting between two of the world's most powerful leaders but there are more than rumblings that the balance of power in the relationship is very one sided and doesn't stand up in the cuts they have this it's based in dependency is the u.s. denied spine and merkel cell phone ben admitted it no it just continues because the moment says words are of the right to collect information i just see and google merkel going to the us to pick up the new instructions. the chancellor has come in full rebuke of home for not pushing to allow edward snowden to give testimony and

an investigation into n.s.a. activity in person her critics saying that she's looking to protect the image of her u.s. partners mrs merkel's visit won't just be watched closely in germany many in europe are angry that no leader really stood up to the actions of the u.s. in the aftermath of snowden's revelations. i think the single most proof of the cowardice of governments and their under billionaires to actually tackled is in a meaningful way despite what they would say publicly was when when the. european countries closed their airspace and forced the new year. the president a plane over. to learned in austria on a hunch or suspicion of what's on board trid is set to play a major role in the talks negotiations are still ongoing over the transatlantic trade and investment partnership or t.t.p.

which could see an easing of current tight restrictions on the surface this could see both the e.u. and u.s. profit but it won't cost to consumers genetically modified food home beef and chicken could end up like this in germany ninety six percent of people think that e.u. standards on environmental protection better than the u.s. on car safety the figures show ninety one percent in favor of the e.u. and on data protection eighty five percent didn't think the u.s. standards were up to the job more transparency is needed in te tip talks say those standing against mrs merkel's party in upcoming elections. the whole negotiations are taking place behind closed doors amongst a small number of people we must be vigilant when this type of deal is done with third world nations are often attempts to undermine the legal system of that land we will not accept this. the ongoing situation in ukraine looks

a certainty to be discussed but while both the u.s. and e.u. have bent sanctions they've taken different forms representing europe closer economic and energy bond to russia while germany and the united states remain the firmest of friends on the international stage when i'm going to miracle sits down for talks with barack obama it looks likely that there will be some issues they certainly don't see eye to eye on. r.t. . we asked michael hudson an economics professor at the university of missouri if he things position on sanctions could change. the germans are very clear that they are not going to pursue sanctions that hurt german industry that would be the straw that broke the camel's back and there was some discussion in germany about do we want to really remain part of nato if we don't have a voice in it that we really want to sacrifice german industry so that american

industry can move in and take over the market that the german industry has this is an american market grabbing opportunity from germany and you can be sure that within merkel's own christian democratic party there is a big argument over whether germany should make the sacrifice of its and it's very for american industry just because america says so many more stories ahead for you here on our international including how much does it cost the u.s. to tackle afghanistan's drug industry it's a big price tag we've got dotted with the rest of the world's top headlines after a very short break. i marinate join me on earth into impartial and financial reporting commentary

interviews and much much. only on going bust and. choose your language. killing the killer though if you're going to stay still some of. the consents to. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose the stories that impact your life choose me access to your office or.

it is a twelve fifteen in the afternoon on friday here in moscow it's artsy international efforts to tackle the drug production trade in afghanistan while they will cost the u.s. billions of dollars but still opium production is at a record high cooperation between moscow and washington serves to put pressure on the illegal trade worldwide but the amount of money directly into afghanistan had little effect on the level of drugs flowing out europe russia and the united states are all on the receiving end afghanistan's responsible for eighty percent of the world's opium production heroin production also sought is now forty times higher than in two thousand and one over a million drug addicts are estimated to have died in just the past decade but from the trade are in the billions of dollars are reports. and all other still ravaged by drugs with no help in sight this is the face of

addiction in afghanistan one of many. beneath the bridge in the center of kabul a follow smelling sewer now school grades as a river and on its banks and on the refuse. men with haunted eyes and hollow stares you know every day there are more they huddle in the shadows but there's no need to hide the police don't bother coming here. the supply is cheap there's heroin opium too and the tools to consume them. last year afghanistan recorded its more just opium harvest ever on the scene behind me tell the story of just how devastating that's been for the people here the men that have gathered here are part of a growing addiction epidemic according to the united nations more than a million afghans are addicted to heroin and opium out of a population of some thirty million people which makes up gonna stand not just the

world's top exporter of the drugs but one of its top consumers to put on it and that's despite billions of dollars and more than a decade of western efforts to curb narcotics here is going to study i don't know one of the money go there's no help with the congressional need for us to use this . bill first but if they want to show this it is official treatment clinics are struggling to cope we can cover the drugs or treat god god is the government of christ. they can call or not more than ten percent but ninety percent without any sense. that with g.c. . increasing like that that is. like i don't do that person like this there is good light. which makes these men some of the lucky few

they're getting help it may not be a traditional facility but it's a place to call home for up to twenty addicts at a time there's no medication just group therapy but they say the treatment works this woman they call mother harder we was haunted by her brother struggle with heroin appalled at the growing number of addicts and the lack of help so she stepped in she opened the treatment center and later this restaurant it pays for the expenses and gives the addicts a place to work but in this traditional society it's cost her more than money. my husband didn't approve of this and left me i haven't been able to see my children suzanne i've been threatened and even beaten here but missing my children has been hardest for now this is family i love the. work that the clinic checks in with the addicts some turn to heroin as refugees in iran or pakistan others were driven to drugs by economic despair when you have no

welcome no opportunity it's like death you cannot be productive so you take drugs to escape this former policeman began smoking opium after losing his leg to a landmine an addict for twelve years thanks to his clinic clean for almost one. i made the decision to change my life around i tried many times before but now i have support it's a small victory but afghanistan's battle with drugs is likely to rage on. r.t.e. kabul. or you can see more of these first hand reports right out of afghanistan and the immediate days ahead here we're not seeing international. malnutrition. violence. drug addiction. and she cures. corruption. what are the values you.

see company reports on afghan realities this is an incredibly. good to have you with us today on this friday in may two thousand and four the biggest single enlargement of the ied use history took place little did the new members know that a decade on the union would be struggling with recession unemployment and austerity . shows he looks at whether the newcomers made a wise choice while the parties rocked ten european capitals in may the first two thousand and four as the e.u. became bigger by ten countries for some of the new members like cyprus and malta this move had purely economic motivations while for the rest mostly form of socialism states this was the chance to make a clean break from their communist past now a decade on these countries are looking at whether the e.u. accession of really brought them joy poland is probably the happiest of the two

thousand and four e.u. newbie's new roads striking export figures and escaping relatively intact from recession mainly because analysts say worse still kept its currency instead of euro and even a clear downside from your membership the population after millions of skilled balls left to western europe once borders became obsolete is not editor and still more than seventy six percent of balls are happy to be part of the union the situation is slightly different in the czech republic latest poll suggests that thirty seven percent are not in favor of being part of the e.u. family while thirty five percent support it and the rest are undecided this may be down to the czechs feeling better living standards have not come as fast as they wanted but they also made their feelings known at times protesting against washington. plans to place an entire missile shield on their territory in opinion you can often hear in the czech republic that they don't like brussels bureaucracy and do not like being told what to do over the past five years hungary has been one of the most vocal critics of the e.u. particularly its freshly reelected prime minister viktor orban they have even been

suggestions voiced in budapest that hungary could hold a referendum on exiting the union the reasons for such skepticism lie within the economy after two thousand and four the e used cheap goods flooded the market traditionally an agricultural powerhouse and many farmers lost their markets and means to survive and happiness at their country being forced to pay for the economic troubles of other e.u. member states speaking of which one of the ten newcomers in the e.u. in two thousand and four cyprus is probably the least happiest ones these are quite telling pictures of what was happening last year when the island suffered a huge economic collapse and tens of thousands of people went into the streets to protest against the use bailout plan which almost completely crippled the country's banking system a year on the island's economy is slowly recovering but the anger of losing a lot of money has not subsided among cypriots the two thousand and four accepted e.u. members are split about their decade within the family of twenty eight states and not all of them have perfect ties with brussels but ten years after the e.u.

accepted ten new states in one swipe it's now a lot more careful when it comes to enlargement. your reporting right there let's get into the r.t. world update now we'll start with syria at least eleven children among the latest victims of the bloody civil war as another twin bombing ripped through the central province of hama it comes just a day after barrel bombs hit elementary schools in the city of aleppo killing ten children of the civil war has claimed the lives of over one hundred fifty thousand people displaced many. by let's bring you some live pictures here from the south korean capital seoul where two subway trains collided injuring over one hundred seventy people excuse me these are not live pictures you store one train slammed right into the back of another many passengers were wounded jumping away from the subway cars onto the tracks a full scale evacuation underway again those are not live pictures. it's.

football as a piece of railway as well it's in baltimore the result of a massive storm which is continuing to march up america's east coast sinkhole swallowed a row of parked cars with all the lamp posts and trees. well a very quick evacuation from the local neighborhoods united states has suffered wicked weather for the past five days over one hundred tornadoes ripping across a thousand southeast death toll now at thirty seven. over two thousand protesters in haiti's capital carried banners and fake coffins to call for an end to the president out of president multis rule riot police and u.n. peacekeepers dispersed protesters who had attempted to block a road is the third largest antigovernment protests in just a week. a recap of our breaking news story here knoxy international the storming of the eastern ukrainian city of slavyansk by ukrainian troops locals say they're

now locked in a unable to leave the defense ministry confirm two pilots have been killed following the downing of a number of helicopters several of us soldiers was self defense forces say one of the men has died troops have seized ten protest at checkpoints in captured several self-defense fighters that is according to officials and now protesters have reportedly started barricading buildings in the city keeping you updated on what's happening in slovyansk right here on the international. coming up after the break. in just a moment. jeffrey chapman from kansas is going on trial for murder but he is very afraid of jury

prejudice is it because the jury is full of racists or has some sort of vested interest in seeing him get locked away no it is because he is a giant tattoo on his neck of the word murder written backwards wiser and backwards so he could read it in the mirror. nowadays we live in a total culture of almost complete entitlement so naturally chapman wants to leave jail on a special trip to a tattoo parlor to get the ugly ink changed or removed yeah because he did something stupid his appearance now it is the obligation of the government to help him fix the problem he created often on these opinion pieces i am very critical of the government but this time the man is totally right you can't just take everyone on special trips across town so they can look good for their trial it isn't the state's fault that he has the word murder on his neck the prosecutors even said that chapman that it would be ok if he covered it up with something like a stylish curve for dapper turtleneck sweater it is not the job of the government

to help you get rid of your very stupid and very incriminating debt to a fascist my opinion. unfortunately for the european union and that's very unwise wants to expand it will still hold the euro fall some brussels will still have more and more men bo'sun they forget that it's not only about themselves. your friend post a photo from a vacation you can't. call it different. the boss repeats the same old joke of course you like. your ex-girlfriend still tends to rejoice in poetry keep. norrish. we post only what really matters at r.t.

to your facebook you street. over there i marinate it this is boom bust and this is what's on the agenda for you today. first up we have a best selling author a condom as a pundit and boom bust all star mr jim rickards live and in studio today now jim is sitting down with me to discuss the finer points of his brand new book and the death of money already a new york times best seller by the way so you definitely won't want to miss my interview with him that in today's big deal we're introducing you to our own amazing amazing boom bust producer mr jonathan kim he's sitting down with me and word to talk sign up and whether or not the economy there will soon outstripping us you want to miss a moment but that's it. the

. first quarter g.d.p. numbers for the u.s. came out on wednesday and they were not awesome quite the contrary in fact the u.s. economy barely grew in the first quarter as exports tumbled and business accumulated inventories stocks up and slow. it was pace in nearly a year now g.d.p. expanded at is zero point one percent a sharp pullback from a pace of two point six percent in the fourth quarter of two thousand and thirteen now a calmness had expected growth to slow but only at a rate of one point two percent of course the slowdown is partly attributed to an unusually cold winter here in the u.s. but you have to question whether weather gets you to a zero point one percent number instead of the two point six percent of the

previous quarter or the one point two percent that was expected so anyway you look at these numbers aren't something to celebrate silver lining however there is room for optimism there always is a little room for i think now the u.s. jobs market seems to be healing payroll processor a.d.p. reported that it two hundred twenty thousand jobs were added to the payroll in the private sector in the month of march and consumer spending which accounts for more than two thirds of the u.s. economy increased at a rate of three percent that's barely below the three point three percent pace of the previous quarter what's more the latest monthly data shows that consumer spending increased zero point nine percent in march after rising zero point five percent in february that's the largest game since august of two thousand and nine which isn't salaries which account for seventy percent of employment costs are also increases your point three percent in the first quarter data so far including employment and industrial production therefore suggest that there was momentum in

the economy at the tail end of the difficult first quarter providing a springboard for faster growth in april june period april to june period now bottom line we can't predict the future but we will keep you abreast of what's happening as the data comes in. jim rickards is a renowned economist author pundit and portfolio manager at west shore group now last time we spoke to records he gave us a look into his new book the death of money the coming collapse of the international monetary system great and scary title by the way and today we want to continue our discussion of the book but also get a more practical take on what to do after reading the death of money so jim we want to have an in-depth conversation with you basically about you know the themes in your book the death of money and as i understand it the death of money you aren't

saying to prepare kind of for this economic. apocalypse the you know doom but you're there are so you should be poised to move to a new and different monetary and currency regime so is that correct or not is that my nailing it or no that's right and that's a pretty good summary when i say the death of money it's a provocative title doesn't mean that money goes away completely but it does mean that there are a number of very important shifts one the dollar will lose its status as the leading global reserve currency ever two that will be displaced potentially but one of several things one is the s.t.r. which is the special drawing right it's a geeky name but you can just understand as world money printed like bank or that idea well no no yes no bank or was there actually john maynard keynes idea of bretton woods for kind of world money but keynes believe it or not one of the bank were to be backed by commodities including gold it wasn't a pure gold standard but he wanted gold in the basket the s.t.r. the special drawing rights is not backed by anything it's just another form of comes out of thin air the fed prints dollars the i.m.f.

can print as the r.'s and they will the next time there's a liquidity crisis of the kind we had two thousand and eight it's going to be bigger than the fed because the fed took their balance sheet to over four trillion dollars we haven't had a liquidity crisis since i weighed over nine but so they print all this money anyway they've got tens of. this was for the european central bank so they're not going to be able to take it to a trillion or twelve trillion they're kind of at the algal limit of what they can do so where will the world with critique come from there's only one clean bounce she left in the world which is the i.m.f. the you know the fed's leveraged eighty to one the i.m.f. is leveraged three to one so the i.m.f. has a lot of headroom to print this world money right i mean that's better all right kind of you know you protect that the value of existing currency it's going to take a huge hit when this happens but where can people invest to prevent loss housing bonds farmland you know where are they going to put their money where i think investors should do what warren buffett is doing which is to put your money into hard assets if you look at buffett's recent acquisitions a couple years ago he bought the burlington northern santa fe very well he bought the whole railroad took a part of what's a river it's

a hard ass it's his land right away mining right signals yards which is rolling stock and cetera and houser i would make money it moves hard this it's coal we corn steel cetera so it's the ultimate heart of supply buffet's next big acquisition was oil and natural gas resources and by the way he can move his oil on his own railroad because you want one hundred tanker cars it's a pipeline a will he doesn't need the keystone pipeline so i see buffett is a guy was dumping paper money getting into hard assets to matter what happens to the dollar his stuff is still valuable so i think investors can do the same thing maybe we can all buy a railroad but you can buy a little bit of gold and fine art there are some hard assets you can buy that will preserve your wealth now according to some investors like mark out of favor basically all asset classes are overvalued farmland are to everything right now so are you concerned at all that investments in those assets will also take a hit well you have to be selective and look good there are no guarantees gold is volatile but gold is a volatile part of the because it's being manipulated by central banks and that's not guesswork in chapter nine of my book the death of money i actually give all the

documentation they include some recently declassified documents from the ford library go going all back to the seventy's but continually up until the present day look at the bank for international settlements the central bank for central banks footnotes their financial stake. as they say that they transact in the gold market on behalf of central banks and commercial banks so this manipulation is going on the statistical studies that show the same thing so if you're going to go into gold you have to be prepared to kind of fasten your seat belt rather the gold coast a bit at the end of the day it's the one asset there's always preserved wealth and so that's one choice will get to be selected i'm sure that some farmland and i was somewhere that so overpriced that's not the only land out there to buy my fun is finally in the brazil but that's interesting right now because things have gone back the other way a little more south that's right i mean that's kind of it yeah interesting now the new york times recently ran an article called the great divide in the art market where millions are spent on trophies leaving lots of arts and art collection sort

of attention essentially so how does anyone besides the very wealthy and very knowledgeable can have money but not really know a lot about artwork how are they going to navigate the art market without getting their faces ripped off right well first of all you know you need about five billion dollars to go out and one hundred fifty million dollars because you know that if you had two hundred million you're not going to blow hundred fifty one painting so that's a very rarefied atmosphere but there are some very good well managed our funds and there are some niches so twentieth century masters for example so we're talk we're not talking about you know posters you put up in a college dorm we're talking about museum quality art but these are pieces you buy for maybe one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand and with the right sort of curation maybe a sell the museum after three to five years they could go for seven or eight hundred thousand dollars so that's a way to you know kind of double or triple your money these funds are hard to find but they are they are out there and that's a way for investors in say one hundred thousand dollars range to pool their money with other investors in this area twenty million dollars poorer than you can transact in this market ok that's that's interesting to note and you do it via

a fund you're not only not important you don't have to go to smithsonian alone and that you know what you look like i really i do invest in our father represent one i don't have anything about our but i know it's a good investment to the manager of the fund that i represent knows what he's doing so that's that's an exam. there's someone on staff everyone has that you know there is have you had to be careful how word some more funds are sponsored by dealers and there's a conflict of interest if you don't want to end up financing the deal with inventory it's like these movie deals everyone loves the glamour of investing in a hollywood movie deal but somehow you never get spider-man you always get the sense that we're going to be iraqi. but there are some good our friends out there but not just that i mean lance silver gold fine art is a place for cash and people were surprised to hear me say that on the issues you really got to talk about the death of money why would you have cash well the answer is first of all cash is good in deflation and deflation is much more dangerous inflation but also gives you a lot of optionality if you have cash you might not have it for long but have it for now you're the person who can pivot into an asset class quickly where some

people are fully invested they've been able to get out of things that don't work out so there's a place for cash also now famed expert on bubbles edward chancellor and money manager and she. wrote the following just today about the art market here we have a quote right here that i want to throw up the art market provides an excellent barometer of perspective given our prices depend entirely upon what other people are prepared to pay a bubble in modern and contemporary art which was evidence before the financial crisis has returned so how can art be an asset class that protects wealth in given that right well the thing is anything can go bubbly so i wouldn't i would dispute that and you say you are depends on what someone else will pay you for the same is true for gold big corn to senator but the simplest way to think about it these are all denominated in dollars and we think of gold it is thirteen hundred now it's or art is you know hundred million dollars a painting right there coin is worth whatever it is for under five hundred dollars of cetera so they're really all bets on the dollar so what you have to ask yourself is what's the future of the dollar if you think the dollar is getting stronger you

wouldn't necessarily want those innocent classes if you think the dollar is getting weaker you would want those sequesters the fed policy is to have a weaker dollar so to me it's very easy analysis you don't have to think about it the fed are thought about for sure they're all just reciprocal the. if the fed the treasury want to weak dollar which they do that's what the currency wars are all about when you want those assets to preserve wealth jim we have to go to break but don't go anywhere going to keep you around time now for a quick break but you don't go anywhere either because jim rickards is sticking around and he'll be back after the break to continue our discussion on wealth protection and what exactly that requires because it requires a lot then in today's big deal boom bust producer jonathan kim is joining me and would harrison to talk about china and purchasing power parity but before we go here a look at some of your closing numbers that the bell stick around. i

was born in the ukraine i grew up in a family of alcoholics as did many of my foster sons kids who had slept rough on the street since they were four years old some since they were two enough. we are here and kid in no. way want to help won't be able. to do is a group of kids standing by the road with the children here aren't even asking for food only want to some water to drink. so i saw hundreds and hundreds of publicly stricken children dressed in rags. but i couldn't forget the eyes of this one boy i came back a year later to find that little kid who. has been. like that was how i came by one will foster so.

right to see the. first strike. and i think you're. on our reporters when they're. in the middle east peace talks this afternoon news is proud of this tremendous chance to still doctor but the best. is what you'd like minister benjamin netanyahu. really does hold to the peace process with. the bible we now cross the bridge to go as a teacher at the drop of

a policy he said to the love that you can see. we did in ninety six. for you. welcome back more now with a noted economist jem rickards now jim before we went to break we were talking about art and how to you know diversify into different asset classes to protect your wealth but is your advice mainly for the wealthy and what i mean by that what can the average joe smoe schmoe do to invest his money his or her money and if they can't afford to even partake in these funds the response that trades are to well you are one of a teacher a lot of the alternative investments you know along should not be funds global

macro are funds things like that you do have to be a so-called credit rating need a couple million. so if it is for the wealthier people but also with partners we've launched the west sure return income fund this is a mutual fund register with the f.c.c. it's open to all investors and he sighs and what we do we take investors' money and then we invest in the portfolio that includes some of the things i'm talking about so some of that we have an investment in in our very good art fun we have some precious metals not not a lot but some and we also have emerging market stocks and bonds so this is a retail product that invests in the kinds of things i'm talking about the preserve wealth and protect you against inflation so even the small investor can have a look at that and i've got a good plug for your name and the well this is one one there are a few other people doing this i think but even you know i talk to say if you have a million dollars for one hundred thousand gold and if you have ten thousand dollars i did talk to a taxi driver in las vegas it only got ten thousand or does it buy one gold coin put it in a safe place now you now thirty percent of your investment assets in gold if everything's good you won't get hurt too badly but if things fall apart that gold

will go up a lot protect your wealth so there are things everyone can do ok that's going to now gold anybody brought it up where's it headed and why well in the in the intermediate term it's had a march however down the surly right away as i mentioned when you own gold you're fighting every central bank in the world central banks take gold because it limits their discretionary monetary policy so it would be the first one to say it's volatile you don't want to use leverage gold is volatile enough so you don't use levers to get into gold because just you know by kind of right i recommend physical gold coins and bars physical bullion not gold funds because the day you really want to go in gold starts to gap up the one hundred dollars a day and then two hundred dollars a day and so forth that's when they may close in or cancel a come next futures contract or you know terminate your contracts and yesterday's price but you miss out on today's action so that's when all the paper go will fall apart but physical gold you're fine the other thing is when the when the buying panic breaks out you may not be able to get go now the big institutions central banks will get the gold they want but you may find the man can't deliver your local

dealer is out you may not be able to get it get the go i get people say hey jim in effect. call me at three o'clock the day before everything crashes and also everything and buy gold so you know it doesn't work that way i'm not going to know the day before i can just see it coming ok now you know if currency lost its value everywhere today certain central banks russia us europe they'll be partially covered because they do have gold reserves correct china however they don't have as big of gold reserves but they do have a lot of cash so what do you think china should start buying gold well first of all their gold reserves are bigger than they disclose their official number is one thousand and fifty four tons that's what they say but they're lying they actually have some larger numbers say three or four thousand times it's hard to know exactly how much but we do have some data we have a chinese mining output we have imports to hong kong that's publicly known and also in chapter nine of my book chapter nine of chapter eleven of the death of money their source and by the way there are three hundred footnotes in the book so that you can see here and he says if you see something controversial i give the sources

but they're bringing they're using military intelligence has to bring in gold off the books so they've got close to four thousand tons they're still buying more or so charges by my last trip to switzerland i didn't go to any banks i went to vaults and refiners i talked i talked to the people who were handling the physical metal and they said chinese demand is for racist they're sold a year in advance the chinese want more but they can't deliver because they've got to take care of rolex and some other the jewelry customers and so forth but what's going on behind the scenes are you just go back to hong kong talk to a secure logistics person these are the people who move the gold and he said there's no let up in the demand so the only thing still the speculative how much of those private demand in government demand there you have to make some assumptions but we can easily say that china has three or four thousand tons they were out to get more the u.s. is eight thousand tons so china has little catching up to do and also didn't china recently overtake india as the biggest consumer. consumer gold importer but that's where there's a reason for that is really a questionnaire because india slapped an import tax on gold because there were so

many people buying gold it was throwing their current account into a bigger deficit so they put import tax on so that's when china. pulled ahead but it had very unintended consequences which was india failed to understand how much value out of there was in the jewelry business so the gold would come in and he had the artist and who would make the job because a lot of it is women for their dowries with necklaces and so forth that the fabrication of she went to pakistan india hates pakistan great so they like so they may actually they may actually remove that my best information is they're going to remove the tax in the middle of this year is a big wedding season so you may see a voracious indian demand in the fourth quarter who good to know thank you that's really great tip to have. you know another precious metal silver that's lost over sixty percent and you know it had a higher than the i have a number that peaked near near seventy four she's made forty seven an ounce in two thousand and eleven so how can invest or deal with this kind of volatility unless he or she is speculating you know well i would say number one don't use leverage so you know many borrowed money that you have to pay off student don't use leverage prove the way and just you know i you know i wasn't buying so over four years seven

i think i'll get back up there by the way if gold is that five thousand of the seven thousand ounce which i expect silver will be at one hundred knots but it's subject to the same volatility this is not going to happen tomorrow and over a couple of years but again my the easiest way to understand because bernanke has said publicly he doesn't understand gold a lot of experts don't understand go but there's a very simple way to understand it it's the inverse of the dollar if you think the dollar is going down gold is going up it's that simple buy the if you think the dollar is getting stronger don't buy gold that's pretty simple isn't it actually this area you go now the picture you get from your book is that protecting wealth it requires a lot of energy and time and knowledge and not something that everyone can do and that mostly sophisticated or wealthier people can can they have more access to do it but again it's difficult for people who know what they're doing so how can we possibly move to a new currency regime without increasing income inequality and causing total social on social unrest what we might and we talk i talk about it a book i talk about social and i've got three outcomes one is the the s.d.r.

the special driver of the world money the other one is a kind of gold standard the third. on the social unrest i don't know which one is going to be but i feel be one of the three and i've laid out in what i call intelligence what we call indications or warnings and w. so you can kind of tell which road you are but that is definitely a possibility income inequality will increase it's a serious enough problems that one of the reasons i wrote currency wars and the death of money i had no interest in writing for the academic guardian so the professors i wanted to write for every day since since they can read it just kind of look out for themselves a little bit so that's that's really hopefully my audience and the big guys always take care of themselves for it you could get five hundred who gets wiped out of this it's teachers firemen policemen people with pensions fixed incomes retirement annuities insurance they're the ones who get wiped out the banks the hedge funds the billionaires they do fine and central banks to fund so i think i think you're right in the sense that and by the way if things get really bad we have what i perceive as money riots you'll see in the in a fascist response you'll see the government using executive orders look at local

police forces they look like they're all swat teams they've got body armor night vision goggles flash bang grenades battering rams roams the sort of you know what your friendly local cop is not getting kids out of trees they're going to break down your door so that force is ready if there's too much social unrest so this is fantastic it's always such a pleasure having you here you are a bust all star so thank you sara time on your side as always that was economist author and last fave jim rickards time now for today's big deal. we have an awesome and very special big deal my very favorite producer next to my other very clever producer going to great group of guys around me this is producer jonathan cam he's here to talk with myself and learn about china and its economy

will soon outstrip the u.s. so this is jonathan jonathan first time on the show and have been coming on from time to time to house help us work through material here on the big deal now the u.s. is the biggest economy in the world with a g.d.p. out upwards of sixteen trillion dollars china on the other hand has a g.d.p. of eight trillion dollars but a new world bank report suggests that depending on how you look at it china might take the u.s. as title in the heavyweight economic division so jonathan can you tell me a little bit about the support and what does it say about the size of the u.s. economy relative to the size of china's right so this is a report out of the world bank's international comparison program and basically it was trying to do is compare the cost the cost of real cost of living in the purchasing power of countries around the world and it has data for two thousand and eleven and what they found was that the chinese economy is eighty seven percent of the u.s. economy and that's up from forty three percent in two thousand and five so there's

been a big change over short amount of time and they actually are forecasting that perhaps in this year even the next couple of years the chinese economy will overtake the u.s. economy in terms of size wow so can you explain a little a little bit about purchasing power parity this is like kind of the world of the week here the p.p.p. and rightly what that means in this whole analysis right so the p.p.p. is what the use of to draw this comparison in the p.p.p. basically assumes that price. this is for identical products or the same across countries so let's give you an example like this this is let's say that the canadian dollar is valued at one point five to one dollar u.s. dollar so that's one point five canadian dollars to one u.s. dollar and i want to buy an apple in canada that cost one point five dollars canadian dollars that should cost one u.s. dollar but it sometimes doesn't and the reason why it doesn't because the market exchange rate sometimes overvalues us dollars sometimes hundred dollars u.s. dollars so that's the reason why you did this isn't cost the same amount in both

countries even though it's the same apple and what's important in this situation is that the chinese economy does undervalue its currency so you know that they say that the u.s. is economy g.d.p. is sixteen trillion dollars and the chinese economy is eight children dollars but when the chinese economy essentially says that we want our currency to trade at a lower amounts and then that kind of distorts that whole entire picture and that's what this report is probably trying to correct so what do you think basically do you think that purchasing power parity. you know it does it helps under stuart this distorted evaluation for g.d.p. i think it's a useful idea. basically because people do know that china is trying to keep its. low and so this is an attempt to try and understand really how big the chinese economy is. but you know some people don't think that's a very useful idea ok now add i'm sorry i miss you over there but you know it's

time to bring him into the fold here now what's your take on this report what do you think i think the only benefit you know. what the only benefit of having this at purchasing power parity is the fact that you get a sense of how big china is in real terms so if the chinese economy were to detail as it's doing now it was a ten percent growth per year now it's slowing down toward the seven percent per year. then the question is what sort of impact will that have externally in the global economy as a whole you know there used to be a time when people say united states catches a cold the rest of the world gets influenza you know now we're getting to a point where countries like brazil russia india china are so that when they do celebrate as they're doing right now then it's going to have a disproportionate impact and i think that looking at this from a purchasing power parity perspective gives you a sense that it's actually even more of an impact than you might think at

prevailing exchange rate ok so how does that basically fit into your understanding of the current direction of the chinese economy what does how does that all fit into i would say it's almost the reverse in knowing where the chinese economy is going gives you a sense of you know the relative impact given how it looks in a purchasing power parity perspective so you know used his deceleration from ten percent to seven percent what does that mean in terms of the effect that it's going to have on people that treated with china economies that use commodities that china is now consuming when we see that it will probably have a very disproportionate effect given how important china is one of purchasing power parity based every thirty seconds so a good fifteen from both but what are some of the geopolitical implications of this of the chinese economy becoming bigger or the biggest in the world. we're going to do for a while not exactly sure i think that i think we're going off of what ed said it's really important to people in mind in terms of judging your risk because of the

size of the condom use much greater than we assume that has consequences you know in other places right so and i think that the chinese are looking to downplay this because they don't want to take on the role that the united states has had there was a report out that the chinese have been trying to keep this report from being. you know it's not happening in the chinese media for that reason so they don't like this report geopolitically they want to. thank you so much jonathan thank you so much this is a great i mean big deal that's all for now but you can see all segments featured in today's show on you tube and right over here you know slash the horror facebook facebook dot com our day or you can tweet us at aaron aid at edward n.h. we'll get jonathan's next time that's all for now you can see you next on channel five i think.

unfortunately the european union and that's very wise wants to expand its wants to although you will file some brussels. more and more they forget that it's not only about themselves. personel data are trusted cloud service. that ensures protecting your privacy. could be arranged to randomly get stolen. or become a target of the n.s.a. . what if unclouded sky is right above the clouds on our t.v. . do we speak your language of the will or not of the.

news programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn to angles kiddies stories. so you hear. the spanish find out more visit. i wonder if we still if you still buy. her trailer i thought it was the most leg. but. because i don't believe by any means that bush. cut out of the same cloth as his father who is so totally powerful. in fact he may not be fully in charge.

was breaking news here nazi international at least three people were killed and several injured in eastern ukraine or troops launched an attack on the anti gun. nato says. he says russia. because of its role in the ukrainian crisis. heads to washington with a strong message from big business.